"Now you, sis."

Ember followed suit.

Cin pressed the send. "Paperwork filed. The marriage will hit the system within an hour."

Bastien kissed her. "All right, Major Cabarro. Let's go kick a.s.s."

She cleared her throat. "That's Visira Ember."

He laughed. "Technically, it's monidara."

"Pardon?"

"My brother abdicated. You heard him. As soon as I take Barnie's a.s.s and mount it on my wall, you'll be Her Most Excellent Ember, High Monidara Cabarro."

Ember shook her head as that reality slapped her hard. "Um ... is it too late to ask for a divorce?"

"Only the monidar can grant it. And I have no intention of doing so. Now..." He turned toward Kindel and took the Gyron axe off her belt as they landed in the port just inside the main city with paperwork Syn Wade had forged for them.

She frowned at Bastien's actions. "What are you doing?"

"I swore to bury my Gyron axe in Barnabas's head. Since I don't have one, Kindel's will have to do."

And with that, he lowered the battle shield on his helm and led the way from the landing bay to the palace.

Lacking the easy confidence he exuded, Ember followed with her sisters in tow. How he managed to make this look so easy, she had no idea.

But he was right, no one questioned their presence or the validity of their uniforms that The Sentella had provided for them. They appeared as all the other palace guards. And as Bastien had always said, act like you know what you're doing, no one questions it. They didn't even garner a second look.

As if testing his theory, Bastien walked room by room through the elegant Kirovarian palace that had been his home. And Ember tried not to think of the parties she'd attended here where his mother, sister, and Quin had made her feel horrible.

Made her feel lacking and unwanted.

No, that wasn't true. She'd allowed them to make her feel that way. Bastien had never seen her as less. Had never treated her as anything other than his monidara.

Her sister was right. She should never have allowed her own doubts and insecurities to come between them. His family hadn't run her off.

She had.

Bastien could sense Ember's nervousness on this mission. Brand's too. But Kindel, Ash, and Cin were rock steady. Tasi fell between them. She was a bit of both.

His only aggravation came at the fact that he had yet to find Barnabas.

Where was that b.a.s.t.a.r.d hiding?

They entered the courtyard where his cousins were playing a chasing game of some kind.

Bastien paused to watch them. Barnabas's granddaughters. Cala would be nine now ... right around his son's age. The other two were younger and would have been born after his exile.

That sent a wave of fury through him that his cousin, Neville, had been allowed to continue on with his life in happy bliss. Sp.a.w.ning children and living in luxury.

Through the blood of Bastien's family.

His vision turned dark as he left the children in peace and headed away from them, back into the palace toward the bedrooms. It was the only place left that Barnabas could be.

And he wasn't there alone.

The moment he entered the master bedchambers, Bastien ground his teeth at the sight of a girl who couldn't be any older than fourteen. She was in tears.

Half-dressed, Barnabas turned on them with a growl. "What is this? I didn't request security!"

Bastien glanced over his shoulder to Brand.

She immediately locked the door behind them.

Barnabas went pale. "Open that door!"

Bastien tsked at him. "You know the hardest part about finding you? The eight palaces my father frequented ... you changed up when the emperor occupied them." He pulled his helmet off.

Barnabas's eyes narrowed threateningly. "You! You don't scare me! You were never anything more than your mother's pampered brat."

Bastien nodded. "I was that. And I cherished every moment of it." He waited until Cin had the girl out of harm's way and isolated in a corner. "You should have never gotten greedy, Uncle."

"None of you deserved to rule. And none of you will!" He lunged at Bastien.

Bastien caught him with his fist. And he'd intended to continue it with his fists, until Barnabas pulled a blaster from his boot.

He grabbed Tasi and held it to her head.

Ember gasped.

Bastien went cold. A part of him was p.i.s.sed that he'd allowed Barnabas to get the drop on them.

It wouldn't happen again.

"You don't want to hurt her," Bastien warned.

"You don't order me around." He glanced about frantically. "All of you! Out of my way!"

Bastien nodded at them to obey. "I'm not the same boy I was, Barnie."

"Don't you dare call me that!"

Bastien held his hands up. "Fine. a.s.shole works better for me, anyway."

A palace alarm sounded.

"You know what that is?" Barnabas laughed. "It's all of you heading for your executions!"

He was wrong. It was the countdown on his life. But the b.a.s.t.a.r.d was too stupid to realize it.

Bastien shook his head. "Do you remember what I said to the Overseer?"

"It doesn't matter."

His guards began pounding on the door with a battering ram.

Barnabas smiled even wider. "They'll be through it in a minute, and when they are, you'll all be arrested."

"What are we doing?" Kindel asked in a panicked tone. "Shouldn't we be running?"

"No," Ember said calmly. "They'll catch us. Just wait here." She gave him a knowing look that said she knew exactly what he was thinking and doing and that she was behind him completely.

"For what?" Cin held a hysterical note in her voice.

"You'll see." Ember smiled.

"What I see is all kinds of crazy!" Brand glared at Ember. "Do something with your husband!"

Ember screwed her face up as she watched Bastien closely. He had a plan. She didn't know what, but she trusted him. "It's okay."

"Not okay," Ash said with a note of panic in her tone.

And still Bastien was completely calm.

Even when the door splintered and guards poured into the room to surround them.

"Arrest them!" Barnabas shoved Tasi toward the guard nearest him.

The instant he did, Bastien let fly his axe, faster than anyone could blink.

Faster than a single guard could shoot.

With unerring aim, it embedded straight between Barnabas's eyes.

Tasi shrieked as his blood splattered all over her.

The guards took aim for Bastien.

"Drop it!" he snarled at them. His regal Cabarro tone was filled with so much inherited command that they obeyed instinctively.

He glared at them. "Now you will bow before your monidar. Long reign His Royal Eminence Bastien, High Monidar Cabarro!"

They hesitated.

Until Ember's sisters took up the chant and bowed to him. The others followed suit immediately.

Bastien held his hand out to her. "My monidara?"

That t.i.tle sent a chill down her spine. And she had no idea how to address him in turn.

But she took his hand.

He tucked it into the crook of his elbow, then turned toward the captain of his uncle's guards. "Get the body out. Call housekeeping and have this room cleaned and fumigated." He jerked his chin toward the girl. "Call her parents and make sure she's returned to them safely. I'll have my attorneys contact them in the morning. Round up the rest of the former tyrant's family and bring them to the throne room. If Neville so much as sneezes, kill him with impunity. And find the b.i.t.c.h Alura Cabarro."

With those words, he led Ember and her sisters to the throne room.

Every step of the way, she kept waiting for someone to stop them.

They didn't. In her heart, she knew that he was their leader. Rightfully so.

Still, this was terrifying.

More so because he was under a League death sentence.

As soon as they entered the throne room, Kindel cast her gaze around the enormous, gilded walls that were decorated with thousands of formal portraits of Bastien's ancestors. "Uh ... is it just me or was this too easy?"

Bastien let out an evil laugh. "Day's not over, love. League will order me arrested as soon as this is reported, and Neville will report it immediately."

"Then why are we here?" Cin asked, wide-eyed. "Shouldn't we be fortifying our positions? Arming ourselves? Running?"

Bastien headed to the computer nearest him. "So that I can send this over the official network...." He played the file he'd videoed of his brother's outburst that showed Quin was alive and that Barnabas had been the one to orchestrate the murders of their family. "Once the Overseer sees that, she'll open a formal inquiry. I should be absolved and my Ravin status removed. But only if Neville is dead."

They heard shots fired.

Ember and her sisters drew their blasters.

Bastien didn't.

"What was that?" Brand asked after a few minutes when no one came to arrest them.

"Neville being the idiot. So we no longer have to worry about him testifying."

A few minutes later, a guard came and verified that indeed, Neville had fought against them and had been shot and killed.

"Does this mean we're good?" Ember asked hopefully.

"We're good," Bastien lied. He still had doubts, but he wasn't about to let her know that. Not until he had his son's future secured, and Xander's.

And most of all, Ember's.

One thing was certain. He'd either won a throne today.

Or ended his life.

Yeah, his father had been right. He was forever a reckless gambler with one foot in the grave. But as he looked to Ember, he knew that she was his one anchor in life. And that whenever those suicidal tendencies kicked in, she was the only force in the universe capable of pulling him back from it.

She was and would always be his lifeline.